Daley Is Battered, But Not Defeated

January 04, 1998|By John Kass.

In the summer of 1996, Richard M. Daley was a happy fellow, in complete control of his domain, entertaining visiting writers and telling them he was having fun.

As host of the wildly successful Democratic National Convention, he helped put to rest those ugly images of his father's convention, that violent 1968 party gathering that helped rip apart the old Democratic political coalition.

Thousands of delegates to the 1996 convention sang the son's praises. So did the president-and the pack of journalists who saw a city transformed. It was clean and safe. Crime was down. And the public schools were actually improving, because, as the story was told, the priority had been shifted from contracts and jobs to education in the classroom.

That was then ("The Boss"). He's not having fun now. But he'll be difficult, if not impossible, to beat in 1999.

During the convention, Daley had control over City Hall and much more, including the courts, the county government and other related agencies.

And aided by a robust economy, he was viewed as the top mayor in the country and the most competent mayor Chicago has had in its history. He has outdistanced his predecessors, from the heavy-handed ways of his father to the weaknesses of Michael Bilandic, Jane Byrne and Harold Washington.

Daley pulled the levers of power with a master's touch, binding middle-class black leaders and their constituencies to his government with a series of City Hall contracts and others leveraged through the CTA and the school system, to name a few. And the mayor played the same politics with the city's Latinos, while promising lakefront voters new schools and services.

But growing elements of his political base--white ethnic cops, firefighters, city workers and others--began to view these moves as political expediency at their expense, particularly as the mayor pushed racial preference policies in hiring and promotion on city jobs.

In the last year, scandals have tarnished his reputation. A top political operative, Patrick Huels, resigned his 11th Ward aldermanic post after it was revealed that Huels had accepted a $1.25 million business loan from a trucking company boss with millions of dollars in city contracts. That boss, Marina Cartage owner Michael Tadin, was a friend of the mayor. The publicity stung the administration, but Daley used his political powers to stop any public hearings into the web of Tadin's city business.

Daley was unsuccessful in persuading Chicago that he didn't know how Tadin got those deals; the ethics issue troubled his supporters along the lakefront. A federal criminal investigation of Huels promised more pain. For the first time, Daley showed vulnerability.

Even so, politicians are defined in part by their opposition, which remained weak. U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush (D, Ill.) was emerging as Daley's 1999 opponent, but the black political establishment, and its business leaders, were comfortable with Daley's patronage.

And the mayor still pulls all those levers, with the support of Chicago's business community. Wounded, perhaps. Frustrated, sometimes. But still in control.